


family

by rudderless in an ocean of stars (indelibly_ellie)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alex and Winn bond, Bonding, Brotp, Hurt/Comfort, Sisterly Love, but mild angst, hugs and fluff, ill stop now, like i said, since i'm usually the queen of angst, so mild in fact, that it may come as a surprise, very mild
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 18:54:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9198482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indelibly_ellie/pseuds/rudderless%20in%20an%20ocean%20of%20stars
Summary: In which Winn does something stupid, Alex seizes the opportunity to put on her Big Sister pants, and the family we find isn't always the one we were born into.Alternatively titled 'Father's Day' on Tumblr.





	

**Author's Note:**

> An anonymous ask left on my Tumblr, @rudderless-in-an-ocean-of-stars, suggested this in response to a post I made about being open to prompts:
> 
> "Ship-fic-thing : more Alex and Winn brOTP! I love the sibling dynamic between them and I'd be excited to see your take on it!"
> 
> This is the result.

Winn’s day had been off to a good start.

 

He’d woken up a solid five minutes before his alarms had been scheduled to go off, finding himself in that rare mood where he didn’t need an IV drip of caffeine attached to him arm to kickstart his morning routine.

 

He’d still made himself coffee though, if only to savor the taste of the rich blend from _Lapeyronie_ , a fair trade cafe located somewhere within the 3rd  _arrondissement_ of Paris that Kara made regular trips to just to indulge Winn’s addiction. 

 

 _Kryptonians are awesome_ , Winn thinks dreamily, sipping slowly at his freshly brewed cup of caffeinated ambrosia.

 

But everything had gone to shit the moment he’d opened his front door.

 

There, resting on his prized ‘welcome to the dark side’ doormat, was a medium-sized package wrapped in a brightly colored paper that Winn _recognizes,_  a pang of longing echoing through his chest at the remembrance of the very same paper being used on a majority of his childhood gifts.

 

With a sinking feeling in his gut, Winn kneels to inspect the box, vaguely wondering if his father had finally decided to off his only son and just be done with the whole ordeal of _family_. ~~He wouldn’t blame him if he had.~~

 

On a hunch, he pulls his phone out to check the date. Sunday, and if Winn wasn’t mistaken, the third one of June. Father’s Day.

 

He sighs, stowing away his phone in order to grab the gift with both hands as he beats a hasty retreat back into his apartment, shoulders hunched, shuffling across the floor with an air of resignation weighing down each of his steps.

 

A part of him- the rational part of him- tells him not to open the box.

 

He tears into the paper with more force than strictly necessary, all the while acknowledging the fact that he was never great at the whole sense of self-preservation thing anyways. 

 

 _Too stupid to live_ , he thinks, _but surrounded by too many superhero friends to die._

 

He reaches for the lid, wincing, and rips it off with a haste usually reserved for tearing away reluctant band-aids. 

 

Nothing happens.

 

Winn waits a few seconds, lid still in hand, before looking down at himself and noting the lack of leaky holes and gooey bits sticking out of his flesh with mild relief tainted by a vague sense of dismay that he quickly dismisses in favor of inspecting the contents of his father’s ‘gift.’

 

* * *

 

“You did _what_?!” Alex bellows, hands automatically finding her hips as she enters what Winn had once affectionately dubbed Big Sister Mode™ after repeatedly bearing witness to her various lectures, usually geared towards Kara after the blonde-haired superheroine rushed headlong into danger against all reasonable advice.

 

Now turned against him, he finds the situation less amusing but no less endearing. _Yet_. Behind her, Kara watches, unconsciously mimicking her sister’s pose as she tries- and _fails_ \- to maintain a severe expression.

 

Wincing, Winn raises his hands in the universal gesture of defeat. “I opened it! Sue me for being curious!”

 

“Curious?!” _Murder_ flashes in Alex’s eyes, sending alarm bells off in the back of Winn’s mind. _Foot, enter mouth_. “Curious is Kara using her x-ray vision to check her Christmas presents!”

 

Kara flushes a shade of red with a speed that would be worrying if she were human, and shoots them a sheepish smile.

 

Winn coughs in a feeble attempt to disguise his laughter as Alex turns back to him, frowning. “Opening presents from your homicidal father who has well-documented tendency of sending _exploding_ presents doesn’t qualify as ‘being curious'!” 

 

Cue violent air quotes. The gesture would look silly coming from anyone else, but from Alex, it radiates her usual brand of badassery. 

 

She continues with a snarl. “Maybe the term you’re looking for is ‘craving death’!” 

 

“Alex, I’m fine!” Winn leans back in his chair and waves his arms and legs in the air for added emphasis. “Look! All my appendages are still attached!”

 

“That’s not the point!” Alex roars, and Kara, doing some kind of interpretive dance with increasingly desperate fervor behind her, finally makes a motion that Winn is able to _understand_ , drawing her hand across her throat and letting her head loll to the side as she bounces up and down on booted feet with a surprising lack of noise.

 

_Too late._

 

Alex hoists him out of his chair by the front of his shirt, her left eye twitching ominously, and a strangled noise escapes the Kryptonian’s throat as she watches the scene unfold. 

 

Winn gulps.

 

A lesser man might have needed a change of underwear at this point, but Winn is not that man. At least, not _yet_.

 

There was a lot of ‘yet’ involved when it came to Alex Danvers, who took it as her personal mission to defy every expectation set for her- and doing it all with supernaturally perfect hair and heroic facial expressions to boot.

 

Someone clears their throat- several someones, actually- and the trio look around to meet the stares of approximately half of the DEO, agents having collectively gathered to watch the show. 

 

Vasquez hurriedly shoves a bag of chips behind her back as Alex’s no-less- _murderous_ gaze darts around the room.

 

Alex releases him with a low growl. “You got rid of the whole thing, right?”

 

Winn nods as hard as he can without dislodging his brain from his spine. “Threw it into the incinerator chute as soon as I got here.” He shrugs, trying hard to appear nonchalant. “It was just a teddy bear.” 

 

A note of wistful longing echoes in his voice despite all his best efforts to sound stoic, and he knows she catches it. Alex doesn’t miss anything- at least, not when it came to Winn and Kara’s various tells.

 

Her homicidal expression softens- marginally- and Kara gives him a thumbs-up over her sister’s shoulder, a mixture of sympathy and understanding etched across her features. 

 

The sight of it makes Winn’s throat tighten, and he struggles to swallow as tears begin to prick at the corners of his eyes.

 

“Come with me.” Alex turns on her heel, movements brisk and efficient, heading towards the hall leading towards the training rooms. 

 

Predictably, Winn nearly trips over himself following suit.

 

“Kara, stay,” Alex calls out over her shoulder, her tone leaving no room for argument. 

 

The blonde pouts, almost appearing to wilt beneath her cape, but obeys, throwing herself into Winn’s vacated chair after shooting a last, oddly indecipherable glance in his direction.

 

Winn wonders if he had been allowed to evade death at the hands of his father just for the extra bonus of having to face death at the hands of Alex Danvers.

 

Who knew the grim reaper had such a sense of humor?

 

* * *

 

In the privacy of one of the unused training rooms, Winn anticipates a violent death, his overactive imagination kicking into high gear as Alex locks the door with a decisive twist of her wrist.

 

But she doesn’t kill him.

 

She approaches, expression intense and unreadable, and pulls him into a hug.

 

Alex  _holds_ him, clutching him tight against her chest with the attitude of someone just daring the world to try and take him from her grasp.

 

He breaks down in her arms, weeping against her shoulder, mourning for the father he had lost so many years ago, whose ghost now cast a relentless shadow across his life even from behind the bars of whatever dark hole Agent Chase and her colleagues had thrown him into.

 

Almost absently, the gesture borne from years of being Kara’s older sister, Alex runs her fingers through his hair as he buries his face into the junction of her neck and shoulder, his tears hot against her skin as he clings onto her with equal fervor.

 

They stand like that for a while, and the only sounds that echo through the room are Winn’s gradually subsiding sobs and Alex’s surprisingly sweet soprano as she half-hums, half-sings the words to a song he vaguely realizes is in Kryptonian.

 

 _She must have learned it for Kara_ , he notes, heart nearly full to bursting in his chest as he slowly relaxes into her solid, unwavering warmth.

 

* * *

 

They gather at Kara’s apartment later that day for Trivia Night, and Alex quickly claims the spot beside Winn- along with his beer- when she arrives, bearing potstickers and Japanese takeout from a place just down the road from the building- _Mr. Pi’s_ , if he’s not mistaken.

 

Maggie sits beside Alex, and her gaze is warm and friendly when Winn is finally introduced to her. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” she quips, and her smile reveals a pair of deep-set dimples that make her seem instantly more adorable in Winn’s eyes. And Alex’s too, judging by the lovestruck expression that softens her face every time said smile is directed at her.

 

Winn grins back, clinking their bottles together in an impromptu toast. “I could say the same. Alex never shu-”

 

Alex shoves a potsticker, pilfered from Kara’s ever-shrinking pile, into his mouth with a dangerous smile. Winn chokes, and Maggie laughs. “What was that, Danvers? Do you really talk about me at work?”

 

Alex stammers out a hasty response before turning back to Winn with a glare that makes his life flash before his eyes.

 

Around a mouthful of pork and mixed vegetables, Winn makes a sound that could pass for an apologetic squeak.

 

Kara laughs, and Winn draws the conclusion Kryptonian laughter must be infectious, because it spreads around the room until everyone is chortling. 

 

Lucy is sprawled across James’ lap, seized by a fit of uncontrollable giggles, and Maggie is leaning backwards against a bemused Mon-El, who doesn’t get the joke but laughs along nonetheless in the spirit of being polite. Even Lena, who had been sitting quietly beside Kara for most of the night, comes out of her shell to chuckle at Kara’s antics. 

 

Winn smiles, taking in the sight of the people gathered around the living room table- his friends, _real_ friends, made in spite of his last name and his father’s violent legacy. 

 

He joins them in their laughter, collapsing against Alex, who steals his beer _again_ \- but he doesn’t mind.

 

He is here.

 

He is happy.

 

He is _home_.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a review, donate a beer to a victim of Alex's booze theft.
> 
> P.S.- Lapeyronie and Mr. Pi's are both very real restaurants that you should check out. :D


End file.
